Digital ad revenue up 19 percent in first half of 2016, according to IAB report

Digital advertising spend increased to $32.7 billion during the first six months of 2016, according to the latest Internet Advertising Revenue Report from the Interactive Advertising Bureau (a trade group for digital publishers and advertisers).

That’s up 19 percent from the same period last year, and it represents an all-time high. David Doty, the IAB’s executive vice president and chief marketing officer, said that the industry’s continued growth is “astonishing,” but he suggested that the most impressive numbers are on the mobile side, where ad revenue increased 89 percent to $15.5 billion — mobile accounted for 47 percent of all digital ad spending, making it bigger than desktop search.

“This is the inflection point,” Doty said. “Mobile has become the big story.”

The report, which was prepared for the IAB by PricewaterhouseCoopers, showed that mobile spending was up across categories. Mobile video, for example, increased 178 percent to $1.6 billion, while mobile search increased 105 percent to $7.4 billion.

Meanwhile, things are declining on the desktop side, with desktop search down 12 percent to $8.9 billion, and desktop display down 7 percent to $6.3 billion.

And while the report doesn’t break out social media for mobile specifically, it says that social media ad spend as a whole increased 57 percent, to $7 billion.